Australia’s New South Wales Road and Maritime Services (RMS) is successfully using solar powered e-paper traffic signs on Sydney roads.
According to Visionect, a Slovenian company that supplied the platforms for managing the signs, this is the first time electronic ink has been used in traffic signage anywhere in the world.
Electronic paper and ink mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper – the technology is also used by Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader. E-paper consumes up to 99% less power than other powered signage as electronic ink based signs only consume power when changing content on the display.
“The hardware components are managed by server software programmed to ‘wake up’ the sign for certain pre-scheduled windows of time when the content on the sign will be changed using 3G technology,” said Visionect’s head of product development, Rok Zalar. “Outside of the ‘waking’ time, the traffic signs use no power.”
However, there is another scenario where the sign will need to use some power – a front panel light is triggered as darkness falls so the signs are readable. Assuming this is LED lighting, the power consumption would be minimal.
The signs can be remotely monitored online, with any updates happening in real-time via Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity. The hardware communicates with the controlling server using standard TCP/IP.
As well as being electricity-sippers and impervious to mains grid blackouts (battery storage is another feature), the e-traffic signs can help cities also save on temporary road sign placement as each sign can be re-programmed with custom messaging.
While pilfered road signs may adorn the man-caves of more than a few Australian households; these signs will call home, telling the operator where it has ended up. They also feature tamper-detection to help ensure inappropriate messaging isn’t uploaded by mischievous scamps.
“The capital of New South Wales can now boast 100% self-sustainable traffic signs that are powered by solar energy, a natural resource that Australia has in abundance,” says Visionect.
Electronic ink basics:
A very basic electronic paper display is made up of millions of capsules, each about the width of a human hair. Each capsule is filled with a clear fluid containing tiny black and white particles. The white particles are positively charged and the black, negatively.
The capsules are encased in a clear film and electrodes are placed above and below the film. When a negative charge is applied to the bottom electrode, the black particles are repelled towards the top and the white drawn down. How the charge is applied determines what appears on the display.
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